


sk8 d8

by katrinawritesthings



Series: Sk8 au [1]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-02 04:19:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14536497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: when i was little i used to be on an inline speed skate team and i hated it but if i'd just skated casually i would have eventually figured out that casual inline skating is like Peak queer poc cultureanygay jonghyun being the babe on the speed team staying for his first public skate and taemin being a cute casual skate dancing babe on his 500th public skateThis backwards skating thing isn’t that bad. He’s not doing bad, just not good, which is fine. What’s actively, constantly, intensely frustrating him is that he’s barely made it onto the next straightaway but he can already see the pretty babe with the striped sweater cruising around the corner. They sway, they bop, they jam to the beat as they coast backwards like this is no big deal, like it’s as natural as fucking walking to them, and when they glance over everyone behind them and their eyes land on Jonghyun they smirk.tumblrtwitter poll





	1. Chapter 1

“Come on, Jonghyun, what, you move back a space and suddenly you forget to stay low?”

“I  _am_  low, Debs.”

“You could be lower.”

Jonghyun huffs at his coach as she skates alongside his place in the paceline. She always says that and she’s always right. He squats down another inch and leans forward a little more for good measure, reaching out to gently tap Sungmin’s hip in front of him so he doesn’t bump into him. Debbie stays with him until they reach the next corner, where she falls back a little more to talk to someone behind him.

Jonghyun keeps going, crossing his legs tight to turn and the coasting easily down the straightaway. Besides his height problems, he’s doing good and having a nice time winding down with this exercise before practise ends. Already about three fifths of the team has left the front of the line one by one, most of the kids and the more casual skaters, and the line’s speed is finally picking up to something that feels good, a speed that lets him feel the air on his face and the breath in his lungs.

He’s near the beginning of the end of the line in the actual competitive section but before the hardcore professionals. With his recent shift one space back, there are now three people still ahead of him. That’s nine more laps, and then his three at the front, and then he’s done. No problem. He wipes a drop of sweat he can feel trickling down from his helmet and leans into the next turn.

When he’s on his third and final lap, Debbie comes back to skate it with him, glancing him over for anything to coach on. When she hasn’t said anything halfway through, Jonghyun glances at her with a cocked brow.

“Am I valid yet, coach?” he asks. She scoffs lightly into her exasperated smile and lifts one triple pierced eyebrow back.

“Extremely,” she tells him. “See you Tuesday.”

“Yep,” Jonghyun grins, and coasts out into the center of the rink when he crosses the start line. The rest of the paceline keeps going without him and he waits on the other side of the rink for them to pass in front of him before he skates out and to the bench he threw his bag on before practise. He pulls off his helmet, ruffles out his dark brown hair, chugs half of his light blue powerade, stretches his leggies out with a quiet little hum in the back of his throat. Good practise. Good work. Good day.

He steps out of his skates and grabs his bag to head to the bathroom and change out of his speed suit and into his casual shorts and sleeveless shirt really quick. When he’s done, he hikes his bag over his shoulder and wanders back out, walking passed the claw machines and into the public area with all of the tables.

Jinki is sitting there, like usual, in his normal table by the edge of the rink and the DJ booth. Gwiboon and Junghee and Minjung all sit with him. Two of them are eating a little lunch with their helmets off and inlines still on their feet, but Minjung sits quietly and colors in her usual magical forest book, her quads on the bench next to her. Jonghyun has to admire her patience. He wouldn’t be able to stand finishing figure practise and then having to wait another two hours for his sisters to finish speed practise. She must get it from her dad.

“Hi Jonghyun,” Jinki says, and then, a beat after, “Hi Jongie,” Gwiboon and Junghee say. Minjung waves at him without looking up from her coloring. Jonghyun grins and leans on the end of their table.

“Hey Jinks,” he says. He reaches over to boop both speed skaters’ noses. “Good work in practise today,” he tells them. Gwiboon is getting really good at getting in position and staying there and Junghee becomes more of a tiny little speed demon every week. Junghee beams at the praise while Gwiboon scrunches her nose and leans away from his finger.

“You too,” she tells him though, and he smiles back and boops the air in front of her instead.

“You should stay for the public skate, Jongie, you never do,” Junghee says. She reaches to hold his hand in both of hers and wiggle his arm insistently. Jonghyun wiggles his arm extra to make her feel stronger, but lifts his other to rub the back of his head.

“I mean, I don’t know,” he says. “I’ve never actually done a public skate? I don’t know what it’s like.” He’s always just gone home after practise. He never really wanted to deal with a bunch of noobs or share the rink with more people than the team.

“It’s fun, honestly,” Jinki says. He leans his chin on his hand and nods. “It’s chill. You just skate without any rules and you can go request a song from the booth whenever you want.”

“Shit, really?” Jonghyun asks, glancing to the booth and where Minho is setting up before the shift. He’s always wanted to play his own music up there.

“Shoot,” Gwiboon corrects him. Jonghyun looks at her and grins.

“Fuck, Gwibs, I’m sorry,” he says. Minjung and Junghee snort into little giggles while Gwiboon and Jinki roll their eyes.

“You should stay, once,” Jinki says. “You can sit with us. It’ll be fun.” He paps the seat next to him invitingly. Jonghyun hums uncertainty, nibbling his bottom lip. He was kind of planning on going home and spending the rest of this Sunday lying in bed and chilling, but. Maybe another couple hours in his skates wouldn’t hurt.

“They have a glowstick skate,” Junghee tells him. “They turn the big lights off and turn on the fancy colorful lights and you can only go in the rink if you have a glowstick.”

“Oh my god,” Jonghyun whispers. That’s so rad. “Okay, I’ll stay,” he says, and slips onto the bench next to Jinki.

~

Taemin grins wide to himself as he glides along the hardwood floor of the rink. Funky, light music pulses and jams in and around him. Colorful spinning lights roll over the floor, over the walls, over him. The crowd of humans skates with him, weaves and twists around him, moves as a million individual pieces and as one synced up mass at the same time. He’s got his black hightop quads, his bright red skinnies, his favorite striped sweater, his dangly piercings all up in his ears, and his extensions perfectly fit into in his pretty red hair. He’s feeling himself and feeling the crowd and feeling the atmosphere and feeling  _great_ with each stride he takes. He loves it here.

He's taking his laps wide and staying near the edges, the less crowded turns. There’s more space there for him to dance as he skates. Each stride of his is slow and lazy as he bops to the beat of the music. He bounces, twists, turns, pops his feet lightly, never stops moving to the routine he’s making up as he goes along.

He keeps it simple today, though, because there are more tiny kids around than usual. He’s always wary of small nugget children. They’re always bumping into people and he doesn’t want to be in the middle of a spin if he happens to be one of those people. There’s also some tan buff human in a sleeveless shirt speeding around the rink too fast to be entirely safe but not fast enough to get in trouble, but they’re keeping to the inside of the center so Taemin is only a little bit worried about them.

There is one person in particular that he isn’t wary of, at least; Minjunggie, who’s passed him and high-fived him a few times since he got out onto the floor. He sees her behind him again the next time he does a little spin and grins. When she comes by him again and holds her hand out for a high five he twirls in front of her instead, putting her on the outside side, and holds his hand out for her to hold. She takes it with a returned grin and they skate together for a little bit, stepping together to the beat, bouncing and twisting their feet in unison in the little dance they made up together forever ago.

“They don’t teach you this in figure class, do they?” he grins as he pops up onto his toes and spins a few times to finish. She giggles and shakes her head.

“No, but they teach you this,” she says, and pushes a little harder for a moment to do a small jump and twist in the air, landing smoothly and coasting a tight circle around him. Taemin snorts.

“Showoff,” he says, but he’s grinning and he puts his hand on her hair and jiggles her head gently. She’s good at what she does.

And speaking of children that are good at what they do, a flash of a Hello Kitty hairtie quickly passes their chill pace just then. Taemin smiles fondly at Junghee’s back, the little speed demon, and then tilts his head as she grabs the hand of another adult as they skate. On closer inspection, Taemin recognizes them as the babely and buff human that was speeding around earlier. Hmm.

“Who’s that with Jungie?” he asks Minjunggie, pointing through the crowd. Minjunggie glances over and glances back.

“Jonghyun,” she shrugs. “He’s a friend too.”

“Hmm,” Taemin hums. He watches Jonghyun smile at Junghee and then skate with her, playfully going faster and slower to challenge her. Well. That’s one mystery solved.

“Daddy wanted to say hi to you, by the way,” Minjungie says. She’s stretching her hands over her head when Taemin glances back to her. “He’s all fake pouty that you showed up while he was in the bathroom and didn’t wait for him before you came out here.”

“Of course he is,” Taemin grins. Taemin owes him three dollars. “Shoo,” he tells Minjunggie, and makes flappy hands towards the center of the rink where people stand around and do bigger tricks and moves so they don’t crash. He knows she wants to go do more jumps now that he got her started. She high fives his flappy hand and weaves her way in there, rolling into a circle of people to wait her turn to do a trick.

He keeps going, listening to the music until he recognizes the song and gets back into the groove of it. Before long he’s jamming again, popping to his toes and spinning easily around the corners. He’ll go chill in the center in a little bit later to practise his dips. Once he’s done skating some more laps, maybe after he eats something and talks to Jinki and gives him his three--

“Scuse me, coming through,” a loud voice says, and then someone almost bumps his arm and brushes passed. Taemin doesn’t stumble, but he does scowl at a brown undercut and buff biceps. “I like your hair,” Jonghyun calls back over his shoulder, a smirk on his lips as he winks at Taemin before skating away. Taemin snorts. He’s so flattered.

~

Jonghyun is. Frustrated, to say the least. This skating backwards thing is harder than he thought.

He’s good for, like, short distances, and going straight; he’d never had a problem doing that before, which is why he didn’t think he’d have a problem staying in the rink for the special backwards skate event that Minho announced a little bit ago.

He has to admit, though, that it becomes significantly more difficult over long periods of time. His neck kind of hurts from looking over his shoulder so much. And turning? Is very tricky backwards. He can’t cross his feet backwards or lean into it like he’s used to doing. And he’s definitely not used to the crowd, the large amounts of people that he has to be constantly aware of all around him.

Besides all of that, though, this isn't that bad. He’s not doing  _bad_ , just not  _good_ , which is fine. What’s actively, constantly, intensely frustrating him is that he’s barely made it onto the next straightaway but he can _already_ see the pretty babe with the striped sweater cruising around the corner. They sway, they bop, they jam to the beat as they coast backwards like this is no big deal, like it’s as natural as fucking walking to them, and when they glance over everyone behind them and their eyes land on Jonghyun they smirk.

Jonghyun makes sure to scowl extra hard this time as they weave right up to him, swerve sharply around him with a spin, and wink as they pass him.

“I like your tats,” he hears them say when he looks behind himself again to make sure he doesn’t bump into anyone else. He huffs as they roll away with a wide grin. He should've known that the cute skate dancing babe he was flirting with before would be too good at this backwards shit. Now they’re doing the same thing that Jonghyun was doing to them earlier but  _better_  and he’s very upset about it.

He does appreciate the appreciation of his tattoos, though. He likes his tats also. At least they have good taste.

He’s still grumpy, though, when he’s struggling his way through the next turn and they sway so close to him that he can feel the air whoosh by.

“I like your butt,” they murmur into his ear. Jonghyun grunts as he stumbles, the close pass and the turn both hecking him up enough to lose his footing, and shoots them a glare over his shoulder. They cock a brow at him before he loses sight of them in the crowd. Jonghyun grumbles to himself as he looks for Jinki instead, Jinki still sat at his usual table by the edge of the rink. He saw Jinki talking to spinny babe earlier and he wants some answers.

The tacky fuzzy felt of the rink wall burns his arm a little as he slides along it and stops in front of Jinki, but he ignores it in favor of frowning at his friend. Jinki raises his brows at him in question, chin in his hand, politely interested. Jonghyun scrunches his nose at his little innocent act.

“Who the fuck is that,” he says, pointing at the cute babe on the other side of the rink, “and why are they such an asshole at flirting?”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Jinki hums back lazily.

“I--what?” Jonghyun frowns, confused, tilting his head. Jinki gestures up and down at him

“At the wall,” he says. “You can’t stop on the floor. You gotta get off and go around.”

“Jinks, I don’t ca--”

“You’re gonna get in trouble,” Jinki says, nodding over Jonghyun’s shoulder. Jonghyun glances behind him, then hisses sharply when he sees an employee skating over to frown at him. He pushes off of the wall quickly, skates forward a few feet, remembers he’s supposed to be going backwards, and turns just in time for the pretty dancer to casually twist a whole circle around him.

“I like your earrings,” they say. Jonghyun sighs loudly and focuses on just rolling himself the half a lap it takes until he can leave the rink.

Jinki smiles just as pleasantly at him when he huffs into the seat across from him and fumbles in his bag for his powerade. Jonghyun again scrunches his nose at him because that says everything he wants to say in just one little gesture, and he knows that Jinki knows what he means.

“Who are they?” he asks again after he takes a drink. Jinki shrugs innocently.

“I don’t know, Jong,” he says. “The real question is if you don’t like being almost bumped into and given random compliments then why were you doing it to him for like twenty minutes before?” His sweet smile turns into more of a smirk and Jonghyun huffs.

“Okay, I didn’t ask for a lecture,” he grumbles. He knows he’s forward in his flirting. He’s just not used to people being as smugly forward back. He would like it too if it weren’t for the backwards shit. “I asked for a name.” Jinki chuckles and glances out onto the rink. Jonghyun does as well; the cute babe is out there, coasting on a toe and a heel, colorful earrings and long hair falling pretty around their face.

“His name is Taemin,” Jinki tells him. “He comes here every Sunday and Thursday.”

“Hrm,” Jonghyun grumbles, and watches him do a neat little sequence of dance steps before finishing with a quick pose. Taemin, huh. Pretty, pretty, gorgeous Taemin. “He’s a cocky little gremlin,” he says.

“What, like you’re not?” Gwiboon’s voice asks. Jonghyun turns around to watch her sitting down at the table and running a hand through her short hair. Jonghyun scrunches his nose at her too and ruffles her hair to mess it up again. She’s right but they weren’t talking about  _him._  She swats his hand away and turns to Jinki. “Can I have another dollar, dad?” she asks. “I wanna play more games.” She waves lazily behind her at the rows of arcade games that line the wall.

Jinki hums and reaches lazily to pat his pockets for his wallet, but Jonghyun reaches into his bag and grabs his first.

“Here, Gwibs,” he says, and hands her two dollars. “Go murder someone at air hockey.”

“Ooh, nice,” Gwiboon hisses. She snatches up her money and wiggles back to her feet.

“Can you encourage my children to be good at things in, like, a less violent and homicidal way?” Jinki asks. Jonghyun glances at him as he gets up as well with a grin.

“No,” he says, and accepts Gwiboon’s hip bump as they both skate away.

~

Taemin yawns into the back of his hand as he leans up on one of the walls along the length of the rink, watching the people go by lazily. He’s hit his mid skate hungries, he thinks. Time to bug Jinki to buy him food soon and owe him another three dollars.

Minjung comes around the turn and he smiles fondly, watching her slow, graceful strides and lazy spins. He’s always trying to convert her over to the kind of skate dancing that he does but he thinks he’s just going to have to accept that she likes figure skating more. Junghee shows up next, clinging to Jonghyun again, tugging him to skate fast with her and showing him how to bend low like she learned on the speed team. Taemin hides a grin behind his hand. Like that dude  _needs_  any tips on how to be faster and think higher of himself.

When they pass, Taemin takes the opportunity of his stationary position to really admire Jonghyun’s arms: his biceps, the veins in his forearms, his thick shoulders. Taemin appreciates a nice arm as much as the next guy and Jonghyun has some _very_  nice arms. As he’s looking, Jonghyun glances over, spots him, does a doubletake, and glances back at him over his shoulder as he goes by. Taemin raises his brows, curious, as Jonghyun turns back and keeps skating. Hmm. What in the heckie did that mean.

He finds out less than a minute later; when Jonghyun and Junghee round the corner again, Jonghyun lets go of her hand, boops her cheek, and rolls out of the rink. Taemin holds onto the wall and leans back to watch him skate right up to him and fit himself comfortably next to him. Oh.

“Hey Taems,” Jonghyun says, smiling easily, and Taemin has to grin back at that.  _Taems_. That’s cute. He must have asked Jinki about him earlier to know his name, or maybe one of the girls. “You done trying to spin me up every lap?” he asks. “That why you’re off the floor?” Taemin snorts into little giggles at that, at the lovely reminder of how huffy and grumpy Jonghyun kept getting during the backwards skate. It was beautiful.

“I don’t know, Jongie,” he hums. “Are  _you_  done speeding passed me at every moment because you’re proud to be somewhat faster than the average human?” He raises his brows in a challenging sort of way, but instead of getting defensive like he thought, Jonghyun just tilts his head with a small smile.

_“Somewhat_ faster?” he asks. Taemin grins back and nods easily. He said what he said.

“Yeah, somewhat,” he confirms. “You’re fast, but I’m pretty sure you’re not a professional.” He shrugs. He can’t be faulted for speaking the truth.

“Mmhmm,” Jonghyun agrees. He nods slowly, still smiling that innocent little smile. “I see,” he says. He scoots up a little closer so their arms are pressed together. Taemin doesn’t protest at all. “Would you be willing to bet on that?” he asks smoothly. Taemin snorts. He absolutely would, honestly.

“Of c--”

“Alright alright alright, skaters, it’s time for our next event,” Minho’s voice says over the speakers then. Taemin pauses and looks over to the DJ booth where the tall babe is leaning up on the counter and speaking into the mic with that smooth, low voice of his. “Would everyone please slowly and carefully exit the skating area so we can set up for the races, once again, everyone please slowly and carefully exit the skating area.” He leans away from the mic and Taemin hums in thought. Oh.

“Perfect timing,” Jonghyun drawls. Taemin looks back to him with a growing smirk. Perfect timing indeed.

“Wanna put your money where your mouth is?” he asks, jerking his head towards the starting line. If Jonghyun wants to act all fast then he can prove it in a race. Taemin isn’t a speed skater, but he knows he can beat someone who he’s never even seen set foot in this rink before today.

“Kinda wanna put my mouth where your mouth is,” Jonghyun hums. Taemin looks blankly at him for a moment, and then breaks into loud laughter. He leans down and puts his forehead on the wall of the rink, giggling into the tacky fuzz until he can look back up again. Jonghyun looks very proud of himself.

“That was good,” Taemin tells him honestly. “That was good.” That was a gem of a pickup line with pretty solid delivery. Jonghyun grins and winks back at him.

They stay relatively quiet together as the races are set up, just bumping each other now and again with playful little smiles. An employee rolls around the rink once, dropping four cones onto each corner of the inner ring to serve as guidelines, and then Minho gets back on the mic to ask for the tiny kindergarteners to come to the starting line.

They fumble through a slow lap, and then bigger and bigger kids get called up like usual. Gwiboon and Minjung don’t race, but Junghee shoots out there as soon as the other twelve year olds are called out. Since she’s on the speed team Minho makes her start a half corner behind everyone else, but she seems just as unfazed by that as always as she gets into her starting position.

Predictably, she wins, catching up to the other kids and nyooming passed them easily. Taemin and Jonghyun both cheer her on as she passes them and her smile is as wide as her face when she coasts around a victory lap. She leaves the rink at a different entrance than the one they’re at, but Taemin knows she’s going to go right to Jinki to get praise and a fresh cookie from the snack bar as a reward for doing so well.

Eventually, Minho calls for the adults to come out and race. With a challenging grin at Jonghyun, Taemin pushes off of the wall and skates into the rink and to the starting line next to the DJ booth. He hasn’t raced in a while, but he does know how to go fast, and he spins a few times in place to get himself pumped up. Their only other competition is a group of three giggly friends that look like they’re just here to race each other and have a good time. Taemin smiles politely at them as he lines up, then turns to grin at Jonghyun when he rolls up next to him. This should be--

“Will the dudebro with the sleeveless shirt please step back from the starting line,” Minho’s voice says suddenly. “Half a lap back.” Taemin blinks, glances at Minho sitting on the steps to the booth, mic in hand. He’s looking passed Taemin, behind him, so Taemin looks back to Jonghyun, extremely confused. Jonghyun is smiling wide at Minho with one hand pressed innocently to his chest.

“Why, _me?_ ” he asks, voice light and fluttery. “Whyever would I need to do that, Choi?” Taemin frowns. Why. Does he know Minho’s last name. Why does he know Minho at  _all_. Why is he acting all sweet. Why is Minho giving him a penalty start. Taemin lifts his hand to tug his ponytail nervously. Something is. Off. Here.

“I know you’re on the speed team, Jonghyun,” Minho says flatly. Taemin’s eyes go wide and he sucks in a loud breath and grabs Jonghyun’s arm tightly.

“You’re on the  _what_ now?” he hisses. Jonghyun just looks at him, smirks wide and lazy, and winks before he skates half a lap backwards, all the way to the opposite corner of the rink. For the first time Taemin looks down at his skates and realizes that instead of just regular inlines like he thought, they’re real, actual, speed skates. Low boots, five wheels, sleek and shiny and aerodynamic. Taemin grips his hands into little fists and hides his face in them. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck, he fucked up.

“Turn around, Jonghyun,” Minho says into the mic. At the other side of the rink, Jonghyun obediently turns around, facing backwards. He lifts one foot behind him and grabs it to stretch. “Sit down,” Minho tells him. “Legs crossed.” And that Jonghyun obeys too, plopping himself down casually on the hardwood and not losing a touch of his confidence. Taemin glances at Minho, feeling his stomach drop lower and lower as the realization of his impending loss becomes larger and larger. Minho leans lazily on the wall of the DJ booth, watching Jonghyun with an appraising eye. “Hands behind your head,” he adds with a little smirk.

That Jonghyun turns to frown at Minho for, throwing the announcer a tiny glare before he faces back again and laces his hands behind his head. Taemin snorts but has to agree. With everything else that does seem a little unnecessary. Minho stands then, hopping back up to sit in his DJ chair.

“Alright, skaters, this race will be two laps,” he says. Another employee skates out to be the ref as he continues, “No pushing, no shoving, no grabbing, no pulling, no tripping, no whatever, just be fair.” Be fair. Taemin snorts, again looking over at Jonghyun’s starting position. Fair. A quick glance behind him at the table area finds Jinki watching him with the most amused expression and his kids giggling next to him. Taemin sighs and shakes his head. Well. At least it’ll be over soon.

“On your marks,” the ref says, and Taemin blows out a heavy breath as he gets into a starting position. He’s gonna do his best.

“Get set,” they say. Taemin sees Jonghyun’s fingers wiggling excitedly and breathes out a soft chuckle. Fuck.

It’s one thing to know he’s going to lose before the race starts; it’s another to hear the whistle blast and watch Jonghyun swing around, get to his knees, and rocket down the straightaway before he’s even finished getting himself up to speed.

Taemin is faster than the other three, but he already knew that he would be. He knows that he knows how to take longer strides and use different muscles and swing his arms for momentum and stay low. None of that helps the way he can  _hear_ Jonghyun coming up behind him before he’s even gone half a lap.

He’s at least almost to the third corner when Jonghyun does pass him, though, which is something. He almost got a whole lap in. Jonghyun doesn’t glance at him as he zooms by, body low, strides long and powerful, legs crossing skillfully through the corner, arms swinging high, but Taemin does catch the wide smile on his face and the smug V sign he holds up for half a second. He rolls his eyes fondly and resigns himself to skating a whole second lap even though it’s clear who the winner is already.

He rounds the corner, finishes his first lap, pushes himself down the straightaway, and turns onto the other corner just in time to glance over and see Jonghyun winning the race.

“Holy shit,” he mutters to himself. He runs his fingers through his hair and shakes his head. What a fucking trap he walked himself into.

Jonghyun catches up to him again before he finishes rounding the corner, but this time he slows down and just rolls casually at Taemin’s side, like this is a chill skate at the park, like Taemin’s top speed is peanuts to him. With his hands laced behind his head he gives Taemin a cocky grin with a raised brow.

“I like your blush,” he says casually. He’s not even out of breath. Taemin rolls his eyes as they go into the next turn.

“You could’ve mentioned you were on the speed team,” he mumbles, glancing behind him for the other three racers and then back in front to roll over the finish line. He curves into the middle of the rink then, putting his hands on his hips as he coasts lazy circles with his back straight and his feet pointed opposite each other to slow down. Jonghyun grins as he circles with him, leaning sharply into the curve, again placing an innocent hand on his chest.

“And be accused of bragging?” he asks sweetly. Taemin snorts unattractively. Jonghyun really is someone that he’s liking more and more with each interaction.

“Okay, well,” he says. “Since you’re the glorious winner that skates so very fast and does so very well at everything,” he says, and grins when Jonghyun looks even more proud of himself than before, “I think you should buy me something to eat.” This time Jonghyun snorts, but Taemin just smiles back shamelessly. He never stopped being hungry.

“Yeah, okay,” Jonghyun shrugs. “A consolation prize for a cute babe like you is no problem.” He stops mid circle and pushes off to leave the rink, reaching to tug on Taemin’s wrist to get him to follow. Taemin does with only one glance back at the other three racers giggling all over each other and arguing over who won second out of them. Then he skates after Jonghyun, catching up to him and accepting the heavy arm he slings around his shoulders with no protest.


	2. cha cha real smooth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> doing the cha cha slide with a hundred other people on skates is the cornerstone of who i am today as a human thank u for your time
> 
> Taemin smiles innocently and slides one hand up Jonghyun’s arm and over his shoulder.
> 
> “This is where the teenagers come to make out where no one can see them,” he says slyly. He’s honestly amazed that there wasn’t a couple squished down here already. He must be lucky today.
> 
> “Ew,” Jonghyun mumbles, scrunching his nose. “Why the fuck are we here then?”  
> [tumblr](http://katrinawritesthings.tumblr.com/post/173801710161/jonghyuntaemin-sk8-d8-part-22-pg)  
> [twitter poll](https://twitter.com/katrinawrites/status/994985687819563010)

“This is just as rad as Jungs said it would be, fuck,” Jonghyun mumbles. He watches the floor of the dark rink, watches the colorful light flowers and stars swirl and rotate over the hardwood. They glow on the walls, too, and on him, and on Taemin next to him as they skate slowly together, the stripes of his sweater making the lights into a choppy illusion that he can’t stop glancing at.

Taemin grins lazy at him, lights flashing in his earrings and on the glowstick bracelets around his wrists and on the wheels of his quads. He also has a cheap glowstick on a cord around his neck that Jonghyun bought earlier because he wanted to surprise him and didn’t know that he brought his own glowy shit already. Jonghyun was pretty embarrassed about that, but Taemin still put it on and it matches the one that Jonghyun bought for himself, so whatever.

“This must be the raddest thing you’ve ever seen, then, considering how much Jungie exaggerates everything,” Taemin says. Jonghyun snorts, giggling into his hand. She is an embellishing little bub, yeah.

“One time during practice, she scraped her knee and acted so overdramatic about it that we thought she actually, like, broke something,” he says. He loves that little bean child, honestly.

“Sounds like her, yeah,” Taemin grins. They reach a turn and he again tugs Jonghyun to take it wide, pulling him with their linked arms to skate near the wall instead of sharp around the inner corners. Jonghyun lets himself be pulled lazily. This slow skating thing is nice, he thinks, especially with a cute babe like Taemin next to him.

Taemin is still skate dancing, too; he bobs to the funky music, taking his strides to the beat and doing little kicks and twists of his feet. Jonghyun can tell every time he wants to spin but stops himself to keep holding onto Jonghyun. It’s cute. And impressive, honestly. Jonghyun has no idea how he does it.

“How do you--” he mumbles, and tries to copy the way Taemin quickly lifts his right foot in front of his left and then pops it backwards. He clips his left boot with his back right wheel and almost stumbles. Taemin chuckles as he holds Jonghyun a little tighter to steady him.

“Years of practise,” he says, “and skates that aren’t obnoxiously long.” He lifts his own left foot and wiggles his quad, a skate that is admittedly much shorter than Jonghyun’s. Jonghyun still pouts, though, and lifts his own inline skate to wiggle.

“They’re made for speed,” he says defensively. So he can take wide strides and nyoom really fast. Taemin nods with a shrug.

“So not made for dancing,” he says easily. “I bet if you practised in quads for a while you could do some tricks.”

“God, no, I’m garbage on quads,” Jonghyun mutters. He can’t skate on them at all, which is wild, considering he _learned_  on them when he was a little tot. Taemin shrugs again and squeezes his arm gently.

“Guess I’ll have to be enough of a master dancer for the both of us,” he says. Jonghyun squeezes him back. He guesses so. He’s at that point already, honestly; he never stepped off of the beat once during that whole little conversation. It’s almost breathtaking, how Taemin seems to be one with the music even when he’s only giving it half of his attention. It’s almost like he was born to be here, on the hardwood, in those skates, breathing the music in and exhaling it out as art.

“You’re looking at me all dreamy again,” Taemin hums. His pretty lips curve into a smirk as Jonghyun blinks and blushes and looks away.

When he looks back at Taemin, he means to say “stop looking so dreamy then,” but he words catch in his throat as a bigger light rolls over his face. He’s gorgeous, mussed hair falling around his cheeks, dark eyes almost black in the dim light, slightly hooked nose and round cheeks and plush lips all relaxed and content, like he’s happy to just exist here in this moment.

Jonghyun swallows thickly and is the first to tug on Taemin’s arm this time, pulling him inwards, through the crowd and into the center but away from the rest of the dancers. Taemin follows, but hums curiously, tilting his head at Jonghyun in question. Jonghyun unlinks their arms but only so he can stand in front of Taemin and look up at him. A circle of blue stars swirls over Taemin’s face before continuing away.

Jonghyun opens his mouth, closes it, shakes his head, rubs the back of his undercut sheepishly. He has no idea how to put what he wants to express in words.

Instead, he leans forward and up and presses a short but warm kiss to Taemin’s pretty mouth.

Taemin is smiling when Jonghyun pulls back, happy and lazy, and he leans forward and gives Jonghyun a slow return peck. Jonghyun bounces on his toes happily before they link their arms together again and skate back into the crowd. This time, Jonghyun laces their fingers together as well.

~

_“Five hops this time!”_

_“Five?”_  Jonghyun shrieks, eyes wide. “ _On skates?”_

Taemin laughs even harder than he already was as he does his five hops, putting a hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder to steady himself so his breathlessness doesn’t tip him over. Holy shit. Holy shit, this is the best thing he’s ever experienced. Jonghyun looks absolutely baffled as the crowd of people in the center of the rink also do five hops, on skates, the thud of wheels on hardwood almost loud enough to drown out the music.

“Fuck, don’t--” Jonghyun stumbles as he tries to hop and hold Taemin’s weight at the same time. The only reason he doesn’t fall completely is because Taemin grabs him and holds him in a close hug, laughing loud into his shoulder.

“Oh my fucking god,” he giggles.

“Taems, who the fuck decided the Cha Cha Slide was a good song for skates?” Jonghyun asks. Taemin grips his sweaty shirt and just laughs more, nuzzling into his neck and breathing deep his cologne. He skips a few steps of the dance, but pulls away eventually and pushes his hair out of his face.

“It’s a great song for skates, Jongie,” he grins. He stomps his left foot to the beat; Jonghyun does too, half a second late. “And technically it’s the Cha Cha Slide Part Two.” The better version. “They do this every night.” He stomps his right foot to the beat. Jonghyun shakes his head in disbelief.

_“Every--”_

_“Freeze!”_ the song commands, and then Taemin, along with the rest of the crowd, all chorus with it _, “everybody clap your hands!”_

And Jonghyun looks so bewildered again at the practised unison of the entire rink that Taemin has to laugh again as he claps quickly to the beat. This is the best Cha Cha Slide he’s ever been a part of. Jonghyun claps too, after a moment, looking defeated and resigned to finally just go with the song without complaining. Taemin grins and bumps their hips together. He’s so cute.

“Come on,” he says as the song tells them to get down low. He takes Jonghyun’s hands and tugs him down a little, then lets go and jams the rest of the way down himself, rolling his legs out in an easy split. Jonghyun scoffs at him from where he’s just crouching down, hands on his knees.

“Showoff,” he says. Taemin throws him a finger pistol as he gets back up.

“You know it,” he grins. They hop, they stomp left, they stomp right, they cha cha real smooth. Taemin watches Jonghyun fondly as he rolls through the steps easily on his quads. The speedster is getting better at the smooth movements, the grooving in place. He’s even moving his hips a little to the beat. Taemin wants to touch his cute butt but stops himself by spinning a full circle before turning with the rest of the crowd. Maybe later.

For now, they just follow the dance and blend with the crowd around them. Taemin lets the music fill him all the way up from the inside, lets it thump in his ears and his heart and his soul. The pound of the crowd all doing the same steps as him surrounds him as well, making him feel as big as all of them, larger than life, massive and all encompassing. He loves being here and belonging here.

He also loves that after a few more steps he feels Jonghyun’s little hand wiggling to link their arms together. It’s cute, and he smiles at Jonghyun, but he also pulls his arm away apologetically.

“Bad timing,” he tells Jonghyun’s little pout, and then the song tells them to reverse. Six times.

Taemin spins; he skips some of the in between steps and just spins, angles his feet and lifts his arms and twists himself around and around. This is always his favorite part. He loves spinning. It’s his favorite stim.

When he’s done, he grins broad and lazy, flicks his hair out of his face, and finds Jonghyun just looking at him again, stars in his gorgeous brown eyes. He does that a lot. Taemin wonders if every time he does it he wants to kiss him again like he did the first time. He bets he does.

_“Cha Cha now, ya’ll,”_ the song says. Taemin moves to Jonghyun’s side and links their arms again easily, watching fondly as Jonghyun looks down at his skates to watch his feet do the dance move with a tiny little smile. Jonghyun slides his hand down Taemin’s forearm to link their hands as well and Taemin grins. He keeps complaining about sweaty hands but it’s not Taemin that keeps initiating the handholding.

He taps his thumb on the back of Jonghyun’s hand to the beat of the song as they go through a few rounds of cha chas. After Jonghyun stumbles and giggles a little on the two hops; his other hand grapples for Taemin’s forearm to hold himself steady, his nose all scrunched up. Taemin hides his too wide smile behind his free hand. Jonghyun is so cute. And the way his strong bicep squeezes Taemin closer isn’t bad either.

His skin is so warm, warm and soft under Taemin’s fingers, and with the way he brushes up next to Taemin with every movement Taemin can just faintly smell the woody, musky aroma of his perfume. As the seconds go by he wants to slip his arm all the way around Jonghyun’s shoulders instead, wants to feel him small and close and comfy against his side. For once he thinks he’s actually glad that the song is ending soon.

_“Charlie Brown!”_

“What the fuck is a Charlie B--” Jonghyun starts, and then cuts himself short as he watches Taemin and the rest of the rink all do a perfect Charlie Brown. “Oh,” he says, eyebrows lifting into his bangs, and that settles it for Taemin. He slides to the left, sides to the right, takes it back, and doesn’t even stay for the final cha cha like he usually does. Instead, he closes his hand around Jonghyun’s wrist and tugs him gently through the crowd.

“C’mere,” he mumbles, weaving carefully through everyone until they can get back out onto the outer rink.

“Hmm?” Jonghyun asks, glancing back in. “Is the song over?” he asks.

“It’s ending,” Taemin says. He gestures vaguely to the middle where more people are breaking away now as the song fades out into just the regular beat and little ending words from the DJ. Taemin usually stays in the middle for a while after the Cha Cha slide, actually, spinning and jamming and joining the little circles of people to practise some of his bigger tricks. He’s skipping that this time, though, because he has something else on his mind. “I wanna show you somewhere,” he tells Jonghyun.

“Some _where_?” Jonghyun asks as they skate to the wall and slip out one of the entrances. “Not some _thing_?” Taemin glances back at him with a grin and nods. Yeah. Somewhere.

“This way,” he says. He pulls Jonghyun over the tacky patterned carpet, passed the benches, and almost passed the arcade machines, all the way to the wall of the party rooms. Jonghyun tries to keep going, passed the party rooms and into the rental area, but Taemin stops him by squeezing his hand.

“Here,” he says, trying not to smile too wide at Jonghyun’s confused expression as he pulls him towards the last arcade machine instead. Again Jonghyun looks it over, reads the title--it’s the X-Men game, Taemin thinks--and reaches halfheartedly for one of the joysticks, but Taemin tugs him a little bit to the side so he can see the space between the game and the wall. “In here,” he says. He bites his lip as he takes both of Jonghyun’s hands and rolls himself backwards into the small space, too narrow to fit side by side but just wide enough that they can fit comfortably in without being squished. Taemin goes all the way back until his back bumps the wall and Jonghyun is standing in front of him looking even more confused than before.

“Taems, what the fuck,” Jonghyun says blankly. He’s squinting a little at Taemin in the darkness of their tiny corner, thick lips puffed up in a pout. Taemin smiles innocently and slides one hand up Jonghyun’s arm and over his shoulder.

“This is where the teenagers come to make out where no one can see them,” he says slyly. He’s honestly amazed that there wasn’t a couple squished down here already. He must be lucky today.

“Ew,” Jonghyun mumbles, scrunching his nose. “Why the fuck are we here then?” he asks. He frowns at Taemin, completely serious, and Taemin barely refrains from bursting into ugly laughter. Fuck. He looks down and muffles giggles into the back of his hand and then pulls the corners of his lips down to sober himself up. Then looks quickly back up and decides to just be forward instead of trying to give Jonghyun another hint.

“So  _we_  can make out where no one can see us,” he says simply.

“So we-- _ohhh_ ,” Jonghyun says slowly. His eyes go wide with realization, and then a slow smirk pulls up his lips. “Oh.” He takes a step closer, lifting one arm to rest his forearm on the wall beside Taemin’s head so they’re face to face. He chuckles softly and shakes his head. “No idea how I didn’t catch on to that,” he hums. Taemin exhales softly in amusement.

“Same,” he says, “but. Not important.” He tugs Jonghyun closer, hooks his arm over his shoulder, slides his other hand up Jonghyun’s neck and fluffs his fingers through his soft hair. “What’s important is that you’re about to make out with me.” His mouth looks so nice, soft and pink and absolutely gorgeous when he smiles and forms words.

“Good point,” Jonghyun says. He slips his arm around Taemin’s waist and presses their mouths together easily.

~

Jonghyun doesn’t like to exaggerate and use unnecessary flowery language a lot, but he’s lost in Taemin’s lips. He’s lost in their warmth, their softness, the easy way that they move against his. He’s lost in the way Taemin’s tongue slides against his and tastes like a strawberry icee, the way Taemin’s teeth nip and tug at his lips. He’s lost in the way Taemin’s slow breaths puff over his upper lip, in the way his hands run through the hair at the back of his head, in the way his body is warm and solid pressed up against his. Each slow press, each soft peck, each deep, warm, languid slide of their lips feels perfect, like they were meant to be together, like he was meant to kiss Taemin from the moment he was born.

To put it simply.

He might be overexaggerating a little bit, but he just. Really likes kissing and Taemin is really good at it. He wants to keep kissing Taemin for a long time. He doesn’t know how long they’ve spent tucked into the corner like this and he doesn’t care much either.

They’re pressed together fully now and his fingers have been playing with the hem of Taemin’s shirt for a while, pushing it up just enough to slip his thumbs under and rub his skin. Taemin has been casually pressing his leg up between Jonghyun’s thighs as well for the passed few minutes. It’s making him feel very fluffy inside that Taemin is also into the whole subtle flirty almost feeling each other up shit. He knows they’re not trying to fuck here in the middle of the rink, but still. It’s the concept. It’s the mutual knowledge that they’d both totes be down to fuck somewhere else, probably, another time. He’s very into that.

He’s also very into the way Taemin’s hands have come down to cup his face, warm and strong and commanding in the way they angle him better into the kiss. Jonghyun loves the subtle control. He loves how Taemin has been able to read him so easily and figure out what he likes so quickly. He loves that--

“ _Ow,”_  he hisses suddenly, wincing away from the kiss as something pings off of the back of his head. “What the fuck,” he mutters, lifting a hand to rub his hair. For the first time since they started making out back here he opens his eyes and blearily blinks the skate rink into focus. Even here squished into the corner behind an arcade machine is too dark, but he turns away from Taemin’s confused pout to look behind him.

“Can you two go be mushy somewhere else? I’m trying to play a game here.”

Jonghyun still can’t really see much with his bleary eyes but he knows that voice and he sighs.

“You can’t even see us back here unless you're trying, Gwibs,” he calls back.

“Actually, you kinda can,” Taemin mumbles. Jonghyun looks back to him with a little frown and Taemin shrugs sheepishly. “It’s not _private_ , just, you know, no one ever really glances down here, so.” He shrugs again. Jonghyun rolls his eyes. He guesses he knew that from the beginning, but still.

“Get out of there and gimmie my quarter back,” Gwi tells them.

“Is _that_  what you threw at me?” Jonghyun asks, frowning down at the ground in search of the little circle. Taemin snorts and giggles and ruffles a hand through the hair at the back of Jonghyun’s head. Jonghyun isn’t ashamed to say that that fond little gesture made him significantly less grumpy. He reaches down and picks up the quarter, but when he rolls out of the little not-so-secret area with Taemin clinging lazily to his elbow, he holds it out of Gwiboon’s reach.

“What are you playing?” he asks, pushing her hands away gently as she reaches for it. He puts it into the coin slot next to the one she was standing in front of and smirks when she scowls at him. “Can I fight you in it? I’m gonna fight you in it.”

“No, you heck,” she snaps, “it’s a co-op game. Now you gotta help me win.” She pulls out another quarter from her pocket and puts it into the machine.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says. He puffs up his lips as he actually looks at the game. Apparently he’s The Wolverine. Rad. That’s his favorite dick sucking X-Man. “Alright, then,” he says. He guesses he’s doing this now. On his other side, Taemin snorts and leans his cheek on his shoulder.

“Have you ever played this game in your life?” he asks. Jonghyun grins and shakes his head as he pokes the two buttons in front of him to figure out which does what. He’s sure he’ll figure it out and do relatively well no problem.

“Nope,” he says. Taemin snorts again and shifts to stand more behind him.

“Lemme help you then,” he says. He wraps his arms around Jonghyun’s waist, fits his chin over his right shoulder, and lifts his left hand to cover Jonghyun’s on the joystick, all in one smooth motion.

“Oh my fucking god,” Jonghyun whispers. He knows he was just sucking on Taemin’s tongue with his hand halfway up his shirt in a dark corner, and he knows that that was extremely cheesy and will probably make him even worse at the game, but his heart still thuds and his face still blazes with heat as Taemin’s other arm squeezes him close. “What the fuck, what the fuck. What the fuck.” He’s so weak for that snuggly shit.

“One day I’m gonna grow up and get a cute enby datefriend and make out with them, like, on top of you two, just so you know what this feels like,” Gwiboon mutters. “Didn’t you just meet like three hours ago?”

Jonghyun opens his mouth to tell her it was more like three and a half, but Taemin drops a kissie on his cheek and he forgets what he wanted to say.

~

Jonghyun is tired.

He’s trying to pretend like he’s not, but Taemin can tell, and it’s absolutely adorable to watch the way he slouches over the table and pokes at Jinki’s arm to cover for how he can barely sit up straight. Taemin is sure he’s not helping in the way he’s leaning lazily on Jonghyun’s side, but Jonghyun is the one that slung his other arm around Taemin’s waist and Taemin doesn’t see him complaining, so. He’s not moving.

He is giggling, though, as quietly as he can, at how Jonghyun badly muffles a yawn into his powerade bottle. Sleepy bub. It’s barely even eight--though, Taemin guesses, Jonghyun has been here since, like, one for speed practise. He would be tired too. He wonders how Jinki and the kids aren't exhausted right now since they’ve been here since nine for Minjunggie’s practise, but he supposes that they’re used to it by now.

Jonghyun’s arm around his waist squeezes him close, tugging him out of his thoughts. He hums a questioning little noise as Jonghyun nuzzles the side of his head.

“You’re cute,” he mumbles, and a grin immediately creeps onto Taemin’s face. Oh, he thinks.

“Oh,” he says. “Thanks.” He drops a little kissie on Jonghyun’s cheek, something he’s becoming incredibly fond of doing. “You too.” Jonghyun smiles back at that, eyes all droopy, and presses a quick kiss to Taemin’s bottom lip, something Taemin can tell Jonghyun is becoming incredibly fond of doing.

“Y’all better thank me for this cute shit you have going on right now,” Jinki mumbles from the other side of the table. Taemin looks over to him to see him scrolling through his phone, not looking at them but pointing at them with one finger. “I’m the one that convinced Jong to stay today.”

“Technically, it was Jungs,” Jonghyun says. He rubs his cheek on Taemin’s shoulder after he says it and Taemin paps his leg, curious.

“Was it really?” he asks. He’s been wondering this whole time why Jonghyun stayed, ever since he learned that he was on the speed team. Jonghyun nods against his shoulder.

“She bribed me with stories of the glowstick skate,” he says. Taemin snorts softly and hides another laugh behind his hand. Of course she did.

“I love Jungie,” he says.

“Hey, rad,” Junghee’s voice says, and they all glance up to see Junghee skating up to lean at the end of the table. She’s got that wide smile on her face that she gets whenever anyone compliments her. “I love that you love me,” she winks. Jonghyun’s sleepy chuckles against Taemin’s shirt are entirely adorable, which just adds to how much he loves Junghee for being the one that caused them. “Anyway, can I get another cookie, my dude?” she asks, turning to Jinki. Jinki ignores her for a moment to finish something on his phone before looking up and poking her cheek.

“No, you’ve already had three,” he says. “I saw the one you tried to sneak earlier.” Junghee hisses a soft curse and Taemin hides a grin. He gave her the money for that secret cookie. “Go get Gwi and Min, it’s time to go home,” Jinki says.

“Oh,” Junghee says. Her face falls into a little pout. “Are you sure?” she asks. Jinki rolls his eyes.

“Yes, it’s late and you have school tomorrow. Go.” He makes little flappy hands at her and she sighs dramatically, pushing away from the table and skating away. Jinki watches her go, then yawns into the back of his hand and looks at his phone again. “I saw you give her the money for that cookie, Tae,” he says quietly. Taemin chokes a little on his spit and turns into Jonghyun’s shoulder to muffle his guilty laughter. Fuck. He thought he was smooth. Jonghyun paps his side, leans a little away, gets his finger under Taemin’s chin when he looks up curiously and pecks his lips.

“Want me to walk you to your car?” he asks, low and suave and confident. Taemin tilts his head, confused.

“Uh,” he says, “why?” And Jonghyun tilts his head now also, mirroring his confusion.

“Because. It’s.” He points at Jinki, points out to the arcade area where Junghee is no doubt tugging Gwiboon away from a game. “Time to go?” He says it like a question, like he was sure of the answer a second ago but isn’t anymore. Taemin gasps softly in realization, then giggles and shakes his head.

“I mean, for them, maybe,” he says, gesturing lazily at Jinki. “I stay here until, like, eleven.” The only reason Jinki and the girls go home early is because the girls are small and have to go to school and shit. They stay later during the summer, sometimes. Taemin stays late all the time.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says. Pink dusts his cheeks and he looks away. “Right, yeah, okay.” He takes another drink of his powerade and looks back with his usual wide smile. “I bet it gets real fun here when it gets late,” he says. Taemin leans his elbow on the table and props his chin in his hand, surveying Jonghyun lazily. He’s so cute when he thinks he’s lying well.

“Did you want me to go home now so you could make out with me in the parking lot and then go home too because you’re all sleepy?” he asks. The pink that hadn’t quite left Jonghyun’s cheeks yet darkens and he turns away again to rest his head in his arms on the table.

“No,” he says. His voice is a defiant pout and Taemin snorts. Jinki does too, and reaches over to poke Jonghyun’s nose.

“Don’t lie to the babe, Jong, you’ve only just met him,” he says. Jonghyun huffs and scrunches his nose.

“Who asked you,” he grumbles. Taemin paps his bicep absently and is opening his mouth to say that he wouldn’t mind escorting Jonghyun to  _his_ car before coming back inside when Minjung rolls up and sits next to Jinki, tugging at the hair in her tiny ponytail to fix it up even.

“Hi daddy,” she says, and then puts her whole hand on top of Jonghyun’s head. “What’s he pouty about this time?” she asks. Jonghyun takes her wrist and pretends to bite her finger before letting it go and returning to his pouting. Taemin pets his hair fondly and scratches at the base of his undercut because he discovered while they were making out that it makes him get all scrunchy and smiley. It does the same thing now; Jonghyun’s shoulders bunch all up and he hums a soft little smile into his arms.

“He’s a sleepy baby and he’s grumpy that I’m not,” he says. Jonghyun’s happy noise turns into a pouty noise again and Taemin rolls his eyes.

“Where’s the other two?” Jinki asks Minjung. Minjung shrugs as she brings her feet up on the bench to pull off her skates.

“Some fuckboy said girls weren’t good at games so they had to play him first, to beat him,” she says. Taemin feels Jonghyun nodding under his hand and agrees as well. That’s a good enough excuse to stay a few more minutes.

“Can you, like, not say the fuck word on a regular basis around me?” Jinki asks. “Like Gwi does?”

“You know Boonie says the fuck word like, every three words when you can’t hear,” Minjung tells him.

“Yeah, when I can’t hear,” Jinki repeats. “That way I can pretend she doesn’t say it.”

“It’s not even a slur, daddy, it’s just the fuck word. Who cares?”

“Teachers? If you’re saying it as a habit then you’re gonna accidentally say it at school one time and then I’m gonna get in trouble and I won’t even be able to truthfully say that I don’t normally hear you use that kind of language.”

“I guess I’ll just have to be extra careful to not call Mr. Fuckhead that to his face, then.”

“Oh my fucking god,” Jinki mutters, and Taemin leans over Jonghyun’s back to muffle his laughter into his shirt. Jonghyun shakes with repressed laughter under him as well. His skin is warm, so Taemin shifts closer, slipping his hands around to feel up Jonghyun’s shoulders and biceps before looping them around his waist. He smells good too, like citrus and wood, and Taemin nuzzles into the back of his neck. Very suddenly he wants to snuggle Jonghyun just like this forever and never let him go.

“You’re so comfy,” he murmurs against Jonghyun’s skin. Jonghyun’s hand paps his thigh gratefully.

“Thanks,” he says. His voice is even sleepier than before; Taemin thinks sitting with his head on the table made his lack of energy even more pronounced. “Can you walk me to the bus stop and make out with me a little bit so I can go home?” he asks. Taemin smiles against his neck and drops a little kissie there. He can do that, yeah.

~

Jonghyun is bone tired when he finally slouches into bed, but he smiles as he nuzzles his soft cool pillows and wiggles under his blankie. Today was good. And fun. And relaxing. And  _tiring,_  which would normally be bad, but his insomnia has been making his sleep schedule a little extra fucky lately and being drained enough to conk out early tonight should help towards fixing it.

He flicks on his bedside lamp, takes a sip from his water bottle, and grabs his leftover fries from when he stopped at Jack in the Box on the walk home. Nibbling on one, he plugs his phone into his charger and then relaxes into the bed as he unlocks it with a contented sigh.

The first notification that he has is a text from Taemin.

He drops his phone to his chest and hides his face in his hands, smile wide behind his fingers and pushing up his cheeks. Fuck. He knows he told Taemin to text him after they finished making out at the bus stop, but, fuck. He’s so gay. He loves when people actually text him back on the same night instead of waiting. Picking up his phone, he bites his lip as he reads the message.

**From: Sk8r Boi  
9:30pm**  
so hey u like me right lmao just checking

Jonghyun snorts at the text. That’s cute. He likes the honesty.

**To: Sk8r Boi  
9:50pm**  
Ye i like you lots uwu

**From: Sk8r Boi  
9:51pm**  
alright rad so when do i get to see u again :D

“Oh my god,” Jonghyun giggles. That’s so cute--the smiley, the immediate reply, the eagerness. Jonghyun imagines Taemin feeling his phone vibrate on the rink and slowing to a stop in the middle to pull it out. He tugs his blankie further up and thinks about his week’s schedule. Hmm.

**To: Sk8r Boi  
9:54pm**  
Skate practises are sundays tuesdays and thursdays but i also have therapy every other thursday so

He hits send and brings his phone to his mouth to cover his yawn. He hopes he hasn’t forgotten anything about his schedule. His memory isn't so great when he’s sleepy. He closes his eyes to rest them while he waits for Taemin’s reply, then jumps a little when his phone vibrates in his hand. A grin pulls up his lips as he opens the new text. Minjung told him that Taemin always takes forever to reply to her texts. He feels special.

**From: Sk8r Boi:  
9:56pm**  
well i’m not showing up on a tuesday lmao so next sunday then??

Next Sunday. Jonghyun hums sleepily and rolls over in bed, resting his head in his arms and holding his phone probably too close to his face to be healthy. Next Sunday sounds nice. They could probably set a date to meet up somewhere else even earlier--Jonghyun knows they would both be down for it--but he feels like the wait will make their reunion that much nicer. Maybe in another few Sundays when they know each other more they can go out for dinner or something.

For now, Jonghyun sends Taemin back a thumbs up emoji, a blushie emoji, and a sleepy emoji. Then he slips his phone onto the bedside table and flicks off his lamp. As he hugs his pillow under his chin, memories of Taemin’s warm hands, his deep voice, his pretty face under soft colorful lights fill his mind and he drifts to sleep with a smile in his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #when jong wakes up taems sent him a nut emoji and then four hours later a meme at 2am  
> #jongs in love  
> #also when he wakes up his leggies are sore and hes pouty so he makes kibum come over and demands to be pampered  
> #kibum comes over and makes him food and rubs his leggies and chills bc theyre bffs  
> #and jongs giggly smiley at his phone the whole time and kibums like Are You Sexting That Sk8 Boi Right Now  
> #and jongs like no im telling him my leggies are sore and hes saying hed come over and make me food and rubbie them : )))  
> #jong: isnt that soooo romantic uwu uwu uwu  
> #kibum:  
> #jong: uwu  
> #also jong stays for the public skate again next sunday and jongtae : ))) chill and make out and giggle more and its rly nice and fun

**Author's Note:**

> #listen i Love. sk8 au  
> #tacky colored lights??? old arcade machines??? overpriced snacks??? skating??? bright smiley teasy flirting??? sign me the Fuck Up  
> #i also lov jinki nd 2jungboon  
> #theyre like 10 11 nd 12  
> #jung lovs being on the speed team and goin Nyoom  
> #gwi doesnt rly like it much she just likes the public skates and playing games so shes gonna quit after the next meet  
> #minjung lovs figure skating bc she gets to be spinny nd pretty nd buff  
> #jinki doesnt skate bc hes got a bad back and also bc he just doesnt feel like it  
> #but he sits there with his girls nd watches over them and supports their interests and is a good dadther  
> #the girls Lov jongtae and also minho the suave friendly dj babe  
> #minho is everyones favorite dj  
> #AnyGay jongtae go get snacks from the snack bar and sit at the table with jinki and just talk and chill for a lil its nice  
> #also shoutout to mi old coach debbie she was a tiny fighty lesbian and i lov her


End file.
